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Urban legend?

EeneyMinnieMoe

Philosopher
E
Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
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One time, a man sitting next to me on a plane who had chatted me up told me a story that sounded like it came straight out of one of Richard Roeper's books about urban legends. I've never heard this one before and there's no way to prove it is a modern legend unless someone else has heard this.

So this man swore that his wife's cousin's niece or his boss' wife's nephew's ex-wife or his second cousin's boss' friend- I totally forgot who this person was supposed to be to him but something really, really distant and even he seemed a little unsure of who this person was supposed to be- had a terrible misadventure when she was left house-sitting.

Supposedly, she was house-sitting and taking care of a dog for some friends when they were on vacation. The dog unexpectedly died in a few days. She was completely at her wit's end and, to make it worse, couldn't reach the family to tell them the dog had died.

So she called 911 or the vet or health services or something and they gave her an address where she could take the body. She wrote it down and decided to take the dog there by subway. So she got an old suitcase and put the body in there.

As she's on the subway, she's struggling with carrying the suitcase up and down the stairs- it was supposedly an enormous dog- and a young man offers to help her. He asks "Jesus, what do you have in there?!" She replies "Computers."

So they finish lugging the suitcase up the stairs and he turns around and punches her and runs away with the suitcase.

So the question is "What did that guy think when he opened it?!" and "What are the owners going to make of the news that the dog died but the body was stolen by a computer thief on the subway"?
 
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It's a variation of an old one originally from England. Except in this case it was an older woman living in the city whose cat died. She intended to take the train out to a small village where a friend lived and bury Fluffy in her garden.

She put the dead feline in a box and carried it in a shopping bag. Somewhere, in the train station, a restaurant, on the street it was stolen by a thief thinking it was some good stuff.
 
EeneyMinnieMoe said:
I've never heard this one before and there's no way to prove it is a modern legend unless someone else has heard this.
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I hadn't heard this one either, but once again Google to the rescue.

Apparently it varies in details quite a bit, but is well known to folklorists as the "dead cat in the package" story:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_dillards_thief.htm

It was mentioned in the Alt.Folklore.Urban "Frequently Posted Legends" list (search for "dead cat"):
http://www.skepticfiles.org/urban/folkfaq.htm

--Tim Farley
 
What I find interesting is that anyone would actually faint just from seeing a dead cat. :faint:
 
Orthoptera said:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadcat.asp

The interesting thing about this is that it was actually told to you, and not emailed. I rarely hear people tell me these stories as they used to, now I only get them forwarded.
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Yeah, that rarely happens nowadays, doesn't it? I suppose its because people are much more comfortable emailing strangers than talking to them. This man was very chatty, though. Wouldn't shut up, as a matter of fact.

I think that the story that the guy told me actually involved the woman managing to get into contact with some relatives of the family she was dog-sitting for and them putting her in contact with animal services.

I think it's a better story this way because you're also invited to imagine the family's reaction.
 
There was, however, a funny story on the news a number of years ago here. A woman was walking her dog and carrying the obligatory (full) plastic bag. A guy ran by her and snatched the bag. When interviewed on the news, the woman commented that at last one of these guys got what he deserved.

I'll see if I can find a write up of the incident, but the search terms....
 
My Grandmother told me once that a friend of hers had starved herself in order to get rid of a tapeworm. She held her mouth open while the tapeworm crawled out and it wnet into a small box she had for the occassion. She was going to throw the box away at a dump near a park bench. She sat down on the bench for awhile and went strolling around the park for a few minutes. She went back to throw the box away and someone had stolen the box. True story? I doubt it but she said it as if it were true. She was 88 when she told this tale and shes been dead 22 years. This variation of the story has apparently been around for many decades.
 
Talking of animal ULs, I was told this story about 15 years ago, by a guy I worked with. He said it had happened to his immediate neighbour and swore blind it was true. It seems too "good" to be true but I admit I've never heard a variation on it before or since.

It goes like this. My workmate's neighbour is driving home. It's a hot summer's day and he's travelling pretty fast when he hits a cat. He slams on the brakes but it's too late. Feeling shaken, he gets out. He looks around and sees the cat stretched out unmoving on the pavement (that's the bit you walk on in the UK ;) )

He's about to drive off - after all, what can he do? - when he sees the cat move a little. Knowing that he hit it hard he knows it must be smashed up inside and decides to put it out of his misery. He takes a spade from his car boot and hits the cat once over the head, killing it instantly.

That evening, he gets a visit from the police. The officers tell him they have a report from a woman that he killed her cat. Apparently the woman saw the whole incident. She saw him drive down the street, stop for no reason, go to the boot of his car, remove a spade and smash her cat over the head with it. Then, she said, he gets in his car and drives off. Luckily she managed to record his number plate from where she was standing at her window.

When the guy hears this he laughs because it's obvious how this poor woman's misinterpreted what happened. He tells the officers the full story and they find it pretty funny too.

However, before they go, just for completeness, they want to check out his car. The guy says sure, why not? They do, and that's when they find the dead cat wedged in the wheel arch of the car.
 
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Here's a true (but markedly less dramatic) version of this legend:

I had someone in my neighborhood sneak up and ALWAYS steal my newspaper a few years ago. One morning I even tried to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to see who it was to bust them. AHA! I imagined yelling. Unhand my paper, you fiend! Turns out it was a guy who'd come into my yard and snatch it and then jump on the bus. (I lived right by a bus stop.) He was very quick. And pretty big. So I rethought my confrontational stategy.

The next day, I woke up early and took my dog outside right before newspaper delivery. I picked up the dog poo in a plastic baggy and stuck it inside of the paper sans baggy.

Dude picked it up again and got on the bus.

Never stole my paper again.

But I always wished I could have seen the look on his face...
 
baron said:
Talking of animal ULs, I was told this story about 15 years ago, by a guy I worked with. He said it had happened to his immediate neighbour and swore blind it was true. It seems too "good" to be true but I admit I've never heard a variation on it before or since.

It goes like this. My workmate's neighbour is driving home. It's a hot summer's day and he's travelling pretty fast when he hits a cat. He slams on the brakes but it's too late. Feeling shaken, he gets out. He looks around and sees the cat stretched out unmoving on the pavement (that's the bit you walk on in the UK ;) )

He's about to drive off - after all, what can he do? - when he sees the cat move a little. Knowing that he hit it hard he knows it must be smashed up inside and decides to put it out of his misery. He takes a spade from his car boot and hits the cat once over the head, killing it instantly.

That evening, he gets a visit from the police. The officers tell him they have a report from a woman that he killed her cat. Apparently the woman saw the whole incident. She saw him drive down the street, stop for no reason, go to the boot of his car, remove a spade and smash her cat over the head with it. Then, she said, he gets in his car and drives off. Luckily she managed to record his number plate from where she was standing at her window.

When the guy hears this he laughs because it's obvious how this poor woman's misinterpreted what happened. He tells the officers the full story and they find it pretty funny too.

However, before they go, just for completeness, they want to check out his car. The guy says sure, why not? They do, and that's when they find the dead cat wedged in the wheel arch of the car.
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If she saw the whole thing, she would have seen that he braked hard, and hit a cat.
 
lister said:
Also reminded me of this one:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadgranny.asp
Click to expand...

That is interesting since friends of mine went on a trip with granny to Mexico. They did this frequently then one time Grandma died and they knew Mexico customs would take several months and a big headache to get the body through so they stuffed her in the tent on the top of the car and headed for the border. They stopped for a bite to eat and she was stolen along with the car and they ended up with a bigger headache trying to prove that Grandma was dead without a body. They had to wait 7 years or something like that.
 
LibraryLady said:
There was, however, a funny story on the news a number of years ago here. A woman was walking her dog and carrying the obligatory (full) plastic bag. A guy ran by her and snatched the bag. When interviewed on the news, the woman commented that at last one of these guys got what he deserved.
Click to expand...

Similar story that sounds like another urban legend, but it actually happened to a friend's father. He was an immigrant living in Brooklyn and very much "old school", particularly when it came to doctors and medical proceedures. When he developed serious lower GI problems his family finally managed to get him to see a doctor. Whatever it was, it apparently was serious enough that the doc told him to take a stool sample to one of the major medical centers in
Manhattan.

Well, the guy was really embarassed to have to do this, and didn't want anyone to even guess what he was carrying, so he carefully wrapped it up in a large box which he covered with fancy wedding paper, ribbons and such. Got on the subway, went into Manhattan, and was a block from the hospital when a mugger jumped out of an alleyway, said "Gimme the box old man", knocked him down and ran off with the box. My friend said his dad didn't dare return to that neighborhood for fear the mugger would find him and beat him up.
 
DAMMIT! I heard this exact story not too long ago and didn't question it. I'm usually pretty good at spotting urban legends.
 
Orthoptera said:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadcat.asp

The interesting thing about this is that it was actually told to you, and not emailed. I rarely hear people tell me these stories as they used to, now I only get them forwarded.
Click to expand...
Now that's interesting because I hear these stories all the time. My son and I have a running joke about, "it happened to my cousin", (aka it's true, really really it is :rolleyes: ).

When people repeat one of these stories that for whatever reason they believed when they heard it, it is very common to add some claim of 'personally' knowing it is true. People have some need to be believed. I find that more interesting than the silly stories.
 
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Hamradioguy said:
Similar story that sounds like another urban legend, but it actually happened to a friend's father. He was an immigrant living in Brooklyn and very much "old school", particularly when it came to doctors and medical proceedures. When he developed serious lower GI problems his family finally managed to get him to see a doctor. Whatever it was, it apparently was serious enough that the doc told him to take a stool sample to one of the major medical centers in
Manhattan.

Well, the guy was really embarassed to have to do this, and didn't want anyone to even guess what he was carrying, so he carefully wrapped it up in a large box which he covered with fancy wedding paper, ribbons and such. Got on the subway, went into Manhattan, and was a block from the hospital when a mugger jumped out of an alleyway, said "Gimme the box old man", knocked him down and ran off with the box. My friend said his dad didn't dare return to that neighborhood for fear the mugger would find him and beat him up.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes:

Maybe I believe you. ;)
 
Dogdoctor said:
That is interesting since friends of mine went on a trip with granny to Mexico. They did this frequently then one time Grandma died and they knew Mexico customs would take several months and a big headache to get the body through so they stuffed her in the tent on the top of the car and headed for the border. They stopped for a bite to eat and she was stolen along with the car and they ended up with a bigger headache trying to prove that Grandma was dead without a body. They had to wait 7 years or something like that.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes:

Now this one I don't believe. I hope you were kidding, I don't mean to insult you.
 
baron said:
the pavement (that's the bit you walk on in the UK ;) )
Click to expand...

I'm American and I've been using the word pavement since I was about 6 years old. I know we usually say "sidewalk" because pavement refers more to the cement but both words are interchangeably used and well-known. At least here.
 
baron said:
Talking of animal ULs, I was told this story about 15 years ago, by a guy I worked with. He said it had happened to his immediate neighbour and swore blind it was true. It seems too "good" to be true but I admit I've never heard a variation on it before or since.

It goes like this. My workmate's neighbour is driving home. It's a hot summer's day and he's travelling pretty fast when he hits a cat. He slams on the brakes but it's too late. Feeling shaken, he gets out. He looks around and sees the cat stretched out unmoving on the pavement (that's the bit you walk on in the UK ;) )

He's about to drive off - after all, what can he do? - when he sees the cat move a little. Knowing that he hit it hard he knows it must be smashed up inside and decides to put it out of his misery. He takes a spade from his car boot and hits the cat once over the head, killing it instantly.

That evening, he gets a visit from the police. The officers tell him they have a report from a woman that he killed her cat. Apparently the woman saw the whole incident. She saw him drive down the street, stop for no reason, go to the boot of his car, remove a spade and smash her cat over the head with it. Then, she said, he gets in his car and drives off. Luckily she managed to record his number plate from where she was standing at her window.

When the guy hears this he laughs because it's obvious how this poor woman's misinterpreted what happened. He tells the officers the full story and they find it pretty funny too.

However, before they go, just for completeness, they want to check out his car. The guy says sure, why not? They do, and that's when they find the dead cat wedged in the wheel arch of the car.
Click to expand...
I don't believe this one. How many people would go out and smash the cat? What cat wouldn't notice you coming close to it and at least look up at you? And how many of you has ever had the dead animal you hit with your car stick in the car somewhere? When the tires run over the animal, just where in the wheel well is the cat going to wedge?
 
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